These are all good points.

I think it's correct that Xi's experience with anything considered a western value has been a disaster for him politically. Market, liberty, religion have all blown up in his face.

This is also a man who had the audacity to completely ignore a text he read in the Rose Garden with Obama in 2015 on refraining from militarizing the SCS islands. This is the most obvious clue that he regards the liberal West as a joke.

Maybe Liu He is Gorbachev-in-waiting but I see no indication of the hawks in China losing the upper hand. In summary, I think Xi will only leave in a body bag and that he intends to "fight and win wars" as he has said.